Maximiliano Hernández Martínez

Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (October 21, 1882, San Matías, La Libertad – May 15, 1966, Hacienda Jamastrán, Honduras)^[1] was the President of El Salvador from 1931 to 1944. While he served as President Arturo Araujo's vice-president and defence minister, a directorate seized power during a palace coup and afterwards named General Hernández president of El Salvador.

The reason for the coup was that the military personnel had not been paid their salary. This historical story about the military not being paid is not always taught in Salvadoran schools; the causes of the coup d'état are often attributed to the fall in prices of coffee abroad. The reality is that officers were not paid and the Finance Minister had paid only the police, who remained loyal to the president. The army officers were angry and ousted president Araujo.

An ardent fascist, Hernández Martínez led a military government that actively suppressed opposition, most notably the Salvadoran peasant revolt of 1932 led by Farabundo Martí, where thousands of indigenous Salvadoran people were systematically murdered if they were suspected of collaboration with the communists. This massacre came to be known as La Matanza, and the specific number of victims is unknown but estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000. The 1939 Constitution expanded voting rights to women for the first time.

Hernández Martínez was a believer in fringe occultism. When a smallpox epidemic broke out in San Salvador he had colored lights hung around the city, in the belief that this would cure the disease. He also believed in reincarnation and once said that "It is a greater crime to kill an ant than a man, for when a man dies he becomes reincarnated, while an ant dies forever."

During his tenure, El Salvador saw major economic growth. He managed to eradicate crime and paid all the foreign debt. He was admired by the wealthy elite for returning a measure of stability to the country in the midst of widespread social unrest. In 1944, however, he was deposed by the famous non-violent Strike of Fallen Arms led by students. During this massive political action, Salvadoran society was completely paralysed until he was deposed. Hernández Martínez fled to exile in Guatemala. Ironically, the revolt then spread to Guatemala where Jorge Ubico was similarly ousted.

After being deposed, Hernández lived in Honduras until he was stabbed to death by his driver, Cipriano Morales, whose father had been one of the many murdered by Hernández's dictatorship. He remains one of the oldest politicians to be assassinated.

During the country's civil war in the 1970s–1980s, an extreme right-wing death squad named after him operated in the country, and claimed responsibility for the assassination of many Christian democrat and Marxist politicians as well as innocent civilians in El Salvador in 1980.^[2]

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